Central Bank announces Chief People Officer and Director of Economics & Statistics appointments

The Central Bank of Ireland has appointed William Molloy as Chief People Officer (CPO) and Robert Kelly as Director of Economics and Statistics.  Mr Molloy will start in role on 1 May and Mr Kelly on 1 February 2023.

As Chief People Officer, William will continue to be a member of the Central Bank’s Senior Leadership team and will be responsible for leading the development and implementation of the Central Bank’s People Strategy to support the Central Bank’s Strategy.

William has a wealth of people and leadership experience built up over his 22 years with the Bank.  He has a deep understanding of the organisation having held a number of leadership roles in Financial Operations, Payments & Securities Settlement, Banking Supervision, Financial Markets, Organisational Risk and Markets Operations.  William has represented the Central Bank on a range of Eurosystem and international committees, including the ECB’s Market Operations Committee and the ECB High Level Task Force on Central Bank Digital Currency.  

William holds a number of academic qualifications including Master and Bachelor degrees in Business Practice, Risk Management, Financial Services and Modern History and Diplomas in Organisation Behaviour, Leadership and Executive Coaching.  William’s appointment is effective from 1 May 2023.  

As Director of Economics and Statistics, Robert will be a member of the Central Bank’s Senior Leadership team and will be responsible for the Central Bank’s Economics and Statistics Directorate.  This role is responsible for the leadership of economic research and analytics, domestic forecasts, contributing to the development of euro area monetary policy, and the compiling of Irish financial statistics to inform the decision-making of the European Central Bank, the Government, financial services firms and the public.

Robert has been acting up into this position since July 2022.  He brings a wealth of experience to the role having previously held leadership roles in Macro-Financial, Economics, Statistics and Financial Stability. He has represented the Central Bank on a range of Eurosystem and international committees, including the ECB’s Financial Stability Committee and the ESRB’s Advisory Technical Committee.

Robert holds a Doctorate in Finance from Maynooth University and has lectured at Maynooth University and Trinity College Dublin. He has published research on the linkages between the financial system and the real economy, and the impact and effectiveness of monetary and macroprudential policy in leading peer-review publications. 

Robert’s appointment is effective from 1 February 2023.

Announcing the appointments, Governor Gabriel Makhlouf said: “I am delighted to announce the appointment of two senior leaders today – William Molloy as Chief People Officer and Robert Kelly as Director of Economics and Statistics.  These appointments show the strength of our existing leadership team, and bring talent, functional and technical expertise together into these strategically important roles. 

We have an ambitious Strategy, which represents a renewal and repositioning for the Central Bank. Our Strategy aims to ensure that in delivering our mandate, our direction and ambitions are responsive and forward looking. I am delighted to have appointed William and Robert to take on these important roles and I look forward to working with them both and the rest of the senior team to continue the delivery of our Strategy in 2023.  I would also like to thank Patricia Kenny for her work as Chief People Officer and her important contribution to the Central Bank, I wish her continued career success and best wishes for the future.”